Word of Salvation – Vol.49 No.38 – October 2004

 

Our Inheritance in Christ

 

Sermon by Rev C Kavanagh on Psalm 16

Scripture Reading:  Romans 8:28-39

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…

In this Psalm, the Psalmist, who is King David, expresses his great confidence in God. He tells about his reliance on God and his being taken up fully with God.

He is also asking to be kept safe by God. He takes refuge in God. He may even be in some life-threatening situation, as we can see from the end of the Psalm and his confidence in his preservation and resurrection from the dead. But he will not be shaken; he expresses his confidence in God, in whom he has taken refuge.

He turns to his God, the LORD, first of all for safety and refuge because the LORD is first and everything to him. We don’t know what the circumstances were for David. May be he was contemplating one of the many battles that he fought. Or it may be a Psalm of his old age, when he was considering his own approaching death. We too may face similar trials, which may even be life-threatening.

There may be medical tests. You have had something that has been worrying you for a while. You have gone to your GP and he has referred you on to the hospital for tests. You know it must be serious if you are going to the hospital and while you wait for the results you face an anxious time. But cast yourself on the Lord! Trust in Him.

Or it may be the approach of something that causes you fear. Maybe an exam, or a meeting, or an interview. Or you may have thoughts about your own death. It is natural to be afraid of death but it is supernatural to overcome that fear by taking refuge in the Lord. Maybe you are facing an unknown future. The path that you are on seems to peter out in the distance, or it enters a dense wood that you cannot see into, or it divides, and you don’t know which way to go, to the left or the right. Then it is time to take refuge in the Lord.

But you do not have to be facing something in the future for this Psalm to apply to you. It describes a strong relationship of trust in God and love of God that we can all have and should all have. Then… If something appears on the horizon, you will turn to God first. But if there is nothing coming up, you still have the strong relationship described here.

This is how I will look at it. You build the strong relationship with God because you love Him. For God’s own sake. Not primarily for the time of trouble. But rather, that relationship leads to our security and safety in time of trouble.

Think of a marriage. Some of you have been married for a long time. What an achievement, by the grace of God. You will bear me out on this. You entered into a marriage relationship because you loved each other and out of that relationship grew a looking after each other. Ask an engaged couple why they want to get married – well, that’s a silly question isn’t it? Primarily because they love each other. Not primarily to have someone look after you when you are sick. But you will do that, too!

And the other side of the coin is that if you do not have a relationship with God, then there is nowhere to turn when something appears on the horizon. Where will you turn if there is no one to turn to?

Let’s look at the Psalm seeing in it a description of a strong love and trust of God. We’ll look at verses 1-4; then verses 5-6; 7-11; and finally how this Psalm is a Psalm of Jesus.

In verses 1-4 the Lord is everything to him. There is nothing good apart from God and, indeed, there is nothing that is apart from God that is good. His whole focus was on the LORD. He did not try to have a foot in both camps, that is, the world and in the kingdom of God.

I remember as a child we used to play a game we called stretch. You would stand with your feet apart a little way opposite the other person and you would each move your feet further and further, to see who could do the most. When you have a foot in both camps the camps may start out seeming pretty close together but as time goes on they get further and further apart. If you try to have a foot in both camps you will end up falling over.

You must choose which camp you belong to! To the world, or to God’s camp. Choose God. Young people – you must choose. You must. You must. If you do not, you will end up with the default option, and for us human beings that’s the world. But you must make a deliberate choice as to which camp you will be in. The Psalmist here has chosen God and he was in no doubt at all as to where his loyalty lay and as to where he looked for everything that was good.

David further reflects on his love relationship with God in verses 1 and 2 in terms of his obedience to the LORD and his loyalty to the LORD. Notice how the spellings of “Lord” change. He say to the LORD – capital letters, “You are my Lord”. LORD in capital letters is the covenant name of God, sometimes translated as Jehovah or Yahweh. He is saying to the LORD, I will obey you and I’ll stick with you through thick and thin as a loyal citizen of yours.

His love and loyalty are further expressed by the company he keeps. The saints in the land are all his delight. But those who run after other gods multiply their sorrows. He doesn’t want to multiply his sorrows, so he doesn’t run with them.

To delight in ungodly company or ungodly activities is a sure sign of having a foot in both camps. What about you? Who do you keep company with? What television programmes keep you company? Do they promote godliness or ungodliness?

This does not mean that we have to cut off all relations with the world. The apostle Paul said that if we are going to do that then we would have to leave the world. Maybe in that case you should go and live on Mars. But even there the world would catch up with you, the way the space programme is progressing.

Nor does it mean that we should not take part in the structures of society, like government, education or the world of work. These things are God-ordained for human good, like the authorities in Romans 13. They can be guilty of promoting evil from time to time but are not evil in and of themselves. Nor should we narrow our focus down to Reformed Christians. There are other saints in the land besides us.

In verses 5-6 David further reflects on the Lord by recounting His goodness to him. The illustration David is using here is that of dividing up the land after the conquest of Canaan. Each tribe and clan received its land with well-defined boundary lines and this would constitute its inheritance. The inheritance would stay in the families, generation after generation. It was received by the present generation from their parents and passed on to the next generation. That is the sense of the inheritance in the Old Testament. It is something you enjoy now. You possess it now. It has come down from your parents and you will pass it on to your own children. The inheritance is an illustration David is using of his relationship with God.

We have an inheritance as Christians that is to come. It is heaven. As Peter writes in his first letter, it is laid up for us in heaven, kept safe and waiting for us there. Alongside of Christ we inherit wonderful things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor our minds conceived of. But we also enjoy relationship with the Lord here and now.

Is there also a way in which this relationship with God, our inheritance, is received by us from a previous generation and passed on by us to our children, like the land of the inheritance was? Yes, I believe there is. To be sure, we cannot pass on salvation. Every man and woman and boy and girl is responsible before God for his or her own soul. We cannot pass on or inherit a regenerate heart. Only the Holy Spirit can give regenerate hearts. God then leads us on to repentance and faith in Christ’s atonement. But we may pass on the knowledge of the Lord. We pass on the knowledge of the Gospel. We bring the Gospel to our children. We teach them that they need a saviour, that Jesus is that Saviour. We teach them about Christ and that they need to love Him.

Parents, teach your children the Gospel. Encourage them in the faith. Regard them as boys and girls in whom the Lord has a deep interest. At their baptism God made a promise to them. He said that He would wash them spiritually, that they would inherit all He had for them when they turn to Him with their whole heart.

If a king had made a promise to your child that one day he would inherit a wonderful kingdom, then surely you would tell your child all about that promise, about the King and the Kingdom. It wouldn’t matter that the child was too young to understand when the promise was made. That wouldn’t affect the validity of the promise. So it is with baptism, it is a promise from God to our children.

Pass on the knowledge of the gospel to your children. It is the greatest and most valuable thing you have. Pass it on in every way you know how. And pray for them.

How do you pray for your children? That they will be happy, make good marriages, get on in life, have a good job? These things are alright as far as they go but they are not the most important things for your children. Don’t shortchange them in your prayers. Pray that they will become Christians, rooted and grounded deeply in God. Pray they will become ministers of the Word, missionaries, office bearers in the church, study group leaders, Sunday school teachers, men and women who can pass on the faith, who love God more than any earthly thing.

Teach your children by word and example. God has given this sacred task to you. It is true that children learn from the church, too, but to you is given the lion’s share in teaching them the faith by word and deed.

Your greatest good is your inheritance from the Lord. Do you want that for your children, too? Then go all out to give it to them. Don’t have a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude, saying they must make their own choices when they are old enough. Don’t say that if they are elected they will be converted anyway. Strive with God for them in prayer, strive to teach them the Gospel.

Sadly, some of them may turn from the Lord and reject the Gospel. This is a heartache some of you may know. It is a grievous hardship for you to see your children turn away from God. Ultimately they are responsible for their own actions. But you desire the delightful inheritance for them that you have in Christ. It is promised to them by God, on their repentance and faith.

In verses 7-11 of the Psalm we have a further confirmation of the union and communion the Psalmist has with the Lord. The Lord is his counsel and he has set the Lord before him and is confident of His protection. His heart is glad and he rejoices with song to the Lord.

His relationship with God is so strong that it cannot be ended by death. It transcends even death. And this is so because of God and not because of him. It is because You will not abandon me, and not vice-versa. So whatever trial awaits him he can take refuge in God knowing that God will not abandon him, even in death; knowing that love is stronger than death.

A Psalm of Jesus

We cannot leave this Psalm without noting its obvious reference to our Lord Jesus Christ. There are two New Testament quotes from this Psalm, both referring to the resurrection of Christ. In Acts 2 and Acts 13. I’d go so far as to say that though this Psalm does give a revelation of God’s ways with King David, it is principally a Psalm of King Jesus, great David’s Greater Son. We can read it as a Psalm of Jesus.

He was fully taken up with God His Father. He was all to Him. He loved Him. Jesus also loved the saints in the land. They were His disciples, yet He spent His life with them as one who loved them, though He was their teacher and Lord. He rejoiced in doing God’s will. When things did not seem to be going the right way, and God his Father seemed not to be working in a way that might be expected, Jesus said, “Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure” (Matthew 11).

And Jesus set the Lord His God always before Him. He had such a strong faith in God His Father for His resurrection. He lived by faith, as to His human nature. He needed faith to believe He would be raised from the dead. It was no ordinary death and Jesus knew that was to be so beforehand. That is why He agonised so in the Garden of Gethsemane. No ordinary death – for all God’s infinite anger against sin would be poured out into His being. Who could survive that? Jesus had to believe that His infinite Person could absorb the infinite anger of God. And He did. He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23). And God raised Him bodily from the dead.

For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. These eternal pleasures will be ours in Christ. In Him we will not only survive death, but be raised to live with Him forever.

In conclusion, make the Lord your Lord and know that apart from Him there is nothing worth having and nothing worth living for. Don’t try to live with a foot in both camps. It will result in disaster in the end.

You have a precious inheritance in the Lord now. It is your relationship with Christ and it brings peace, joy, hope, love and holiness. It is an inheritance worth more than houses and bank balances. Want it for your children. Pass it on to them insofar as it is up to you. Teach them the Gospel.

Trust in the Lord for life and death. Let your love for Him be strong and sure. Nothing can break the bond of love between you and God. Not even death.

Amen.